It’s becoming increasingly clear that Lexington, Kentucky Mayor Jim Gray doesn’t like the Constitution. First, he attacked his opponent, incumbent United States Senator Rand Paul, for upholding the integrity of due process. Mayor Gray feels that allowing the Fifth Amendment to live is a threat to national security. He then took a swipe at Senator Paul for enabling radical Islam by allowing Fifth Amendment due process to exist.
Now Mayor Gray is at it again, this time portraying the Constitution as counterproductive to the security of America.
In an op-ed in the Lexington Herald Leader, Mayor Gray puts his constitutional confusion on full display again. The usual swipes at Senator Paul and the Constitution were in order. He stated that anyone who is suspected of a specific crime should have their rights deprived without legal due process. It’s also, according to the Lexington Mayor, common sense that if the government says you’re a bad person, you should just simply be stripped of your rights.
Like that time the federal government had an eight-year-old Cub Scout on the no-fly list.
Due process is a simple concept, which Senator Paul gets. If you’re accused of a crime, you have a right to go before a judge and face your accuser. The case will be heard, both sides will present their points. In the end, there will be a ruling on innocence or guilt. Until that ruling however, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. This is how our government has worked since the beginning.
But an eight year old found himself having trouble boarding airplanes and not being humiliated at the airport by government agents because due process didn’t exist. His name was what had his rights inconvenienced.
Mayor Gray is a fearmonger who preys on the emotions of voters. This is the lowest form of politcking.
Due process, he claims, will allow more terrorist acts to occur. By not treated those suspected without a conviction like criminals, we stop terrorism. But background checks wouldn’t have prevented the Orlando shooting and the government had previously investigated the shooter. All the big government policies in the world wouldn’t have stopped the tragedy.
The common denominator in San Bernardino, Orlando, and Paris is defenseless people.
The problem with eliminating due process is that innocent people can be deprived of rights. Accidents do happen, as in the case of 8-year-old Mikey Hicks. Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was also on a watchlist. Are they terrorists?
Throughout the op-ed, Mayor Gray seems confused. He said he doesn’t want to take away anyone’s rights, but he keeps using the word “suspected.” If you’re taking away the rights of someone because they’re “suspected” of a crime, that’s eliminating due process. It affects the Fifth Amendment, which protects us all.
Senator Rand Paul has voted the way he has on the due process legislation because he has read the Constitution and knows what the text of the Fifth Amendment says. As the Lexington Mayor notes in his own op-ed, national security is critical and we need to avoid politicians who want to just make headlines. Voters should listen to him, by not casting their vote for Mayor Gray until he picks up a copy of the Constitution and gives it a read.
Lexington, Kentucky Mayor Jim Gray is an unabashed fool!